- OR: Gang members attack Salem residents with chemical weapons
Source: Salem Reporter
“Federal immigration agents left multiple people needing medical care after tear-gassing a group that was surrounding their vehicles in northeast Salem on Saturday, Oct. 10, according to the Salem Police Department. Around 9:30 a.m., agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reported around 30 people gathered in a Salem parking lot to prevent the agents from leaving, the police department said in a statement. … Following ICE agents’ use of tear gas, multiple 911 calls came into the local dispatch center, reporting people with difficulty breathing and eye irritation, according to Salem Police. Both are symptoms of exposure to tear gas.” (10/10/26)
https://www.salemreporter.com/2026/10/10/ice-agents-deploy-tear-gas-on-group-gathered-in-ne-salem/
- India: Regime thugs abduct thousands as ‘Cockroach’ youth movement protests voter list revision
Source: CBC News [Canadian state media]
“Indian authorities deployed a sweeping security crackdown across New Delhi and [abducted] thousands of protesters Saturday as India’s youth ‘Cockroach’ movement sought to intensify a nationwide campaign against a contentious voter list revision that has fuelled anger at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government and election authorities. Police moved to break up the demonstration before it could begin, intercepting demonstrators on their way to Jantar Mantar, the designated protest site in the heart of India’s capital, chasing off some and [abducting] many others. Some demonstrators were dragged away before being bundled into police vehicles and taken to temporary detention centres. Several leaders of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), along with opposition lawmakers and student activists, were [abducted] before arriving, effectively crippling the protest ahead of its start.” (10/10/26)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/india-detains-thousands-youth-protests-9.7377069
- DOJ investigating whether White House TV pool’s coverage halt violated antitrust law
Source: SFGate
“The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating whether the decision of the White House television press pool to halt coverage of President Donald Trump last month violated antitrust law, an agency spokesperson said Saturday. Emily Covington, a spokesperson for the department, said group boycotts among business competitors might violate U.S. law. ‘The Antitrust Division is simply investigating to determine whether these news organizations have violated the antitrust laws,’ she said. The announcement came after the television pool of five broadcasters last month ceased presidential coverage after the administration barred CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House.” (10/10/26)
- Federal judge rules against US DoJ’s policy of collecting state voter rolls
Source: The Guardian
“A federal judge ruled on Friday that the US justice department’s policy of collecting states’ unredacted voter rolls to check them against a federal immigration database is unlawful. The ruling, by the US district judge Sparkle Sooknanan, was a setback for Donald Trump, who has pushed his administration to ramp up investigations into non-citizen voting ahead of the November midterm elections, with control of Congress at stake. The department’s list maintenance policy, adopted to comply with the president’s election integrity executive order, violated privacy laws and risked disenfranchising voters, Sooknanan said.” (10/09/26)
- UK: Bid to overturn ruling which stops police being sued for failings
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Backbench MPs are seeking to roll back a court ruling they say will have ‘devastating consequences’ for victims of crime by preventing them taking legal action against the police, even when there have been grave investigative failings. The 2025 Court of Appeal judgment, which applies to England and Wales, held that police officers are immune from civil litigation both in their role as witnesses, and for conduct or statements they make when carrying out criminal investigations. Conservative Andrew Mitchell and Labour’s Jess Phillips have submitted an amendment to a bill being debated in Parliament next week seeking to counteract the ruling. Separately, the judgment could also be overturned at a Supreme Court appeal this month. The MPs are seeking to stop immunity applying, including in cases where police have fabricated evidence, been dishonest or negligent, and where there has been a reckless disclosure of confidential information relating to victims.” (10/10/26)
- Four dead, hundreds of thousands without power as Isaias sweeps inland from Gulf coast
Source: Washington Post
“Four people were killed and nearly 900,000 customers were without power after Isaias roared ashore near Destin, Florida, late Friday night as a Category 2 hurricane, packing wind gusts over 100 mph and a storm surge of up to six feet. A wind gust of 117 mph was recorded in Pensacola Beach, Florida, while nearby Santa Rosa Beach experienced a gust of 116 mph. The ferocious winds drove power outages for hundreds of thousands across Florida, Alabama and Georgia, according to poweroutage.us.” (10/10/26)
- Trump urges Fetterman to switch parties and become a Republican
Source: SFGate
“President Donald Trump openly encouraged Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania to switch parties and become a Republican just weeks before the midterm elections could reshape control of Congress. ‘I’d love to see him as a Republican,’ Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews on Saturday as he returned to Washington from a rally in Tennessee. ‘He does better as a Republican than he does as a Democrat.’ The comments were among the most direct overtures by Trump to woo Fetterman into the GOP, a matter of growing importance as the party could lose its Senate majority in next month’s elections. With his everyman appeal, Fetterman was a Democratic star when he was first elected to the Senate in 2022. But during his time in Washington, he has split with Democrats on issues ranging from immigration to Israel, leading to speculation that he might switch parties.” (10/10/26)
- Expedition hopes to find aviator Amelia Earhart’s plane on remote island
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“A team of researchers are on their way to a remote island to inspect what they think could be the wreckage of famed aviator Amelia Earhart’s plane. The group, from the US-based Archaeological Legacy Institute (ALI) and Purdue University, are expected to arrive at Nikumaroro Island in the Pacific Ocean by Monday in the hopes of solving the mystery of her disappearance. The American pioneer vanished while attempting to circumnavigate the globe in 1937, spawning decades of speculation on her fate. The team are aiming to find what has been called the Taraia Object, first spotted sitting on the edge of a lagoon off Nikumaroro in satellite imagery in 2020. Purdue University said the object had since been confirmed to have been visible in aerial photography of the area dating back to 1938.” (10/10/26)
- Turkey: Regime fantasizes that it can keep kids off social media
Source: Politico
“The government of Turkey on Saturday formally banned access to social media platform for children under the age of 15. The law was published today following the Turkish Parliament’s adoption of the bill last April. The ban will come into force on Nov. 1. … Turkey joins a growing group of states, including Australia and Indonesia, that are introducing or exploring tougher age restrictions on social media access.” (10/10/26)
https://www.politico.eu/article/turkey-bans-social-media-for-kids-under-15
- Panama: Regime declares a state of emergency as powerful quake aftershocks rattle communities
Source: SFGate
“The government of Panama declared a state of emergency Saturday as the aftershocks of two powerful earthquakes that roiled the country shook communities for hours. Officials did not attribute any deaths to the quakes but reported damages in all 10 of Panama’s provinces and two Indigenous territories. The 7.7- and 6.6-magnitude earthquakes on Friday toppled buildings near the epicenter and prompted evacuations across the Central American country. Seismologists recorded more than 100 aftershocks, including ones measuring magnitude 5.8, 5.5 and 5.2. The earlier quake, also felt in neighboring Colombia, was centered about 10 kilometers (6 miles) southwest of the remote community of Pitaloza Arriba, in the central province of Herrera, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It struck at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles). Presidential Minister Juan Carlos Orillac announced the emergency during a news conference in the capital, Panama City. He said homes, schools, healthcare facilities, roads and hotels were among the damaged facilities.” (10/10/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/unnerved-panamanians-sleep-in-streets-as-22471467.php
- Trump: “Time for Ukraine to get new president” after Zelensky condemns diesel deal
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“US President Donald Trump has said he thinks ‘it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president’ as he responded to Volodymyr Zelensky’s criticism of the US diesel deal with Russia. The Ukrainian president warned a new deal to release millions of tonnes of Russian diesel into the US would provide Moscow with money to continue its war against his nation, calling it a gift to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump told reporters outside the White House on Saturday that Zelensky “wants to make problems for the world” by continuing to authorise attacks on Russian refineries. Trump said his Ukrainian counterpart ought to “stop” before suggesting Ukraine should ‘get a new leader who can make a deal’. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 the country has been under martial law, meaning elections are suspended.” (10/10/26)
- Indonesia: Headmaster detained after BBC investigation into alleged sexual abuse of students
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“A former headmaster of an Islamic boarding school in Indonesia has been named as a suspect in a sexual abuse investigation and detained by police, following a BBC Eye report. Ahmad Imanuddin Sumar, known to students as Abah, led the Abul Barokat boarding school on the island of Lombok. Police reopened the case after the BBC World Service revealed accusations of sexual abuse against him, and documented how former students had gathered evidence in an effort to bring the allegations to the authorities. The story sparked public outrage and led to 12 more former students giving testimony to police. Central to the BBC Eye investigation were former students Ziadatur Rahmah, known as Zia, and Sukma Rohana Fajar. They launched their own investigation after Zia told a former classmate, Yusron Azzahidi, that the headteacher had sexually assaulted her when she was 17.” (10/10/26)
- TN: Pike discharged from hospital, returned to prison
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Christa Pike has been discharged from hospital and returned to a Tennessee women’s prison after surviving the US state’s attempt to [kill] her by lethal injection, her lawyers said on Saturday. The 50-year-old is back in the Deborah K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center where she had been incarcerated for 30 years. She had been in hospital since September 30 when officials administered two doses of pentobarbital in an attempt to [kill] her. Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 beating and stabbing of her classmate, Colleen Slemmer.” (10/10/26)
- Myanmar: Young men live in fear of being snatched off the streets and sold to army
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“You do not stay out after dark if you’re young and able-bodied in Hpa-An, the capital of Myanmar’s southern Karen state. In recent months this has become conventional wisdom. But Zaw Min has no choice. ‘I worry, but I have to go out to work,’ says the 26-year-old tuk tuk driver, who asked that his real name be omitted out of fear for his safety. ‘My family call me all the time and remind me not to drive passengers too far; to be careful who I take as a passenger… I have to be vigilant all the time. People are panicked and frightened. Some people I know have been taken.’ Locals say plain-clothed members and supporters of the Myanmar junta have been roaming the streets of Hpa-An, arbitrarily arresting people in their teens, 20s and 30s and forcing them into military service.” (10/10/26)
- CA: Thousands of SF mail-in ballots damaged by machine before being sent out
Source: SFGate
“Thousands of vote-by-mail ballots in San Francisco have arrived at residents’ doorsteps with a long slit on the outer envelope this week, leading some community members to believe that they’ve been deliberately tampered with. However, after contacting the United States Postal Service, the city’s Department of Elections was able to figure out why, and has a much more mundane explanation for the ripped envelopes. After receiving reports of the torn envelopes and contacting USPS, the department found that the machines packing the mail-in ballots caused the tears, and USPS has switched over to packing them manually, the city said in an Oct. 7 news release. If the four ballot cards and return envelope are intact, voters can still send them in for processing.” (10/10/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/torn-ballots-san-francisco-22468392.php
- CA: ICE gang member f*cks around, finds out
Source: New York Times
“An off-duty Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent was shot early Friday after he was found sleeping on the lawn of a home in Fresno, Calif., the authorities said. … David Gonzalez, an ICE agent from Texas, had been sleeping on the lawn when a woman returned to her house and saw him, the police said. The woman told her father, who was inside the house. The father, 72, woke up Mr. Gonzalez, who appeared ‘intoxicated and agitated,’ the police said. Mr. Gonzalez then assaulted the 72-year-old man, causing several ‘visible injuries,’ and then assaulted his daughter when she tried to intervene, the police said. The woman’s father then pulled out a firearm and shot Mr. Gonzalez once…. Gonzalez, 32, was charged with felony assault and vandalism, the Fresno Police Department said. He was taken away from the scene in an ambulance and received treatment while an investigation was carried out, the police said.” (10/09/16)
- Seeking Big Weekend Energy
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Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily - Nobel Peace Prize 2026 awarded to ICC judge
Source: CBS News
“The Nobel Peace Prize for 2026 was awarded Friday to Navanethem ‘Navi’ Pillay, a South African human rights champion and judge on the International Criminal Court. The Nobel Committee said awarding the prestigious prize to someone on the ICC, which has faced huge pressure from the Trump administration, was a message to those who seek to undermine international justice. The South African-born former United Nations human rights chief, who is 85 years old, was recognized for her efforts to promote peace and international law, said Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. ‘This is definitely a message to those who are undermining the international system and institutions,’ Frydnes said.” (10/09/26)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nobel-peace-prize-2026-navanethem-navi-pillay-south-africa/
- Russian strikes on Ukraine’s public buses leave 30 dead as blackouts worsen in Kyiv
Source: National Public Radio [US state media]
“A Russian-guided bomb exploded next to public buses filled with passengers in eastern Ukraine, authorities said Thursday, killing 30 people as part of a wave of attacks that also worsened power outages in the capital. … Thursday’s attack followed a Russian missile strike a day earlier that killed 22, including five children, in the northern Ukrainian town of Pryluky. Rescuers were searching the rubble of a residential building. At least 54 people were wounded. Several survivors slept in heavily damaged apartments because they couldn’t find anywhere else to stay. … Ukraine’s energy company DTEK said national grid operator Ukrenergo had ordered emergency power outages in Kyiv. Regular, rolling outages that occur on a schedule across the country will be halted during these shutdowns.” (10/08/26)
https://www.npr.org/2026/10/08/g-s1-147106/russia-ukraine-war
- NYC: ICE thug attempts to murder motorist with five-year-old reportedly in car
Source: The Guardian
“A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) [gang member] shot and injured a man in New York City on Thursday afternoon during an [abduction] operation, federal officials said. The man was conscious and hospitalized, authorities said, and the shooting quickly sparked angry protests from local residents and elected officials in the neighborhood. Early reports indicated that [gang members] had surrounded the man and a five-year-old child in his car in a residential area before firing multiple rounds, the city’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, said in a statement on Thursday evening. The child was physically unharmed, he said.” (10/08/26)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/08/nyc-shooting-federal-agent
- All Wrong for the Right Whale: Maine Lobstermen Lose Claims Against Aquarium Over Group Libel
Source: Jonathan Turley Blog
by Jonathan Turley“The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit issued an interesting torts decision yesterday on group libel. In Bean Maine Lobster, Inc. v. Monterey Bay Aquarium Found., a unanimous appellate panel ruled that the Maine lobster industry could not sue the Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation for saying that Maine lobstering is all wrong for the right whale. The controversy began after the Aquarium told the public to avoid lobster because lobster fishing poses a risk to the endangered North Atlantic right whale. The Maine lobster industry employs roughly 6000 people and catches a whopping 80 percent of the ‘lobster landings’. The Aquarium maintains a program called Seafood Watch, which assigns ratings to different species of seafood, ‘based on environmental impact and sustainability’. It gives a ‘red’ rating to seafood that ‘comes from sources that don’t align with [Seafood Watch’s] guiding principles.’ It gave a red rating to lobster.” (10/10/26)
- The War in Ukraine Is Not Ending Anytime Soon
Source: Cato Institute
by Benjamin Giltner“Russia is escalating its war against Ukraine, killing at least 30 Ukrainian civilians during an October 8 glide bomb attack on two public buses. Rightly, most of the world is outraged. Civilians, tragically, are always killed in wars. But deliberately targeting them is another thing altogether. What this outrage means, unfortunately, is that this war will not end anytime soon. Anger is a major catalyst for wars, and Ukrainians are angry. It’s unclear what the Kremlin’s calculation was in carrying out this strike, perhaps chalked up to growing desperation on the Russian side. Yet bombing civilians doesn’t break a people’s morale and will to fight; in fact, such acts usually strengthen that will.” (10/09/26)
https://www.cato.org/blog/war-ukraine-not-ending-anytime-soon
- We’ve Handed Government Our Work, and We’re Paying the Price
Source: Town Hall
by Mark Lewis“Our Founding Fathers did not put ‘charity’ in the Constitution as a responsibility — power — of Congress or the national government. Thus, the entire American welfare system is unconstitutional, and if anyone disagrees, please ‘lay [your] finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents’ and point it out to me. And prove to me that you know more about the Constitution than the man who wrote it. The Founders didn’t put [it there] for a quite obvious reason: if the government starts giving out free money, the lazy, shiftless, and selfish (which is far too many of mankind) will line up for miles to get as much of it as possible.” (10/10/26)
- The Most American Statue in Europe
Source: Law & Liberty
by Anna Smith Lacey“When Americans think of monuments to George Washington in Europe, Paris usually comes to mind: Daniel Chester French’s majestic equestrian statue, presented by the Daughters of the American Revolution as a tribute to France’s indispensable role in securing American independence. Others may know the bronze statue in London’s Trafalgar Square, a replica of Jean-Antoine Houdon’s celebrated likeness of Washington, cast from the original that still stands on Virginia soil. Almost no one thinks of Budapest. Yet the Washington statue standing beside a quiet lake in Budapest’s picturesque City Park may be the most American of them all. Not because it is the oldest or the grandest, but because of who built it and why.” (10/09/26)
- Why You Should Believe the Polls This Time
Source: Washington Monthly
by Bill Scher“The poll data is in sync with history. Trump’s abysmal job approval and economic record should lead to healthy Democratic gains, including in places where, a year ago, most would not have expected Democrats to win. That Democrats are not guaranteed a sweep of every contested Senate race, let alone an above-average net House gain, is not because the polls are untrustworthy. The polls themselves tell us to remain uncertain and tell the parties not to be complacent.” (10/09/26)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/10/09/why-you-should-believe-the-polls-this-time/
- They’re Setting Up AI Surveillance To “De-Radicalize” Classrooms In Gaza
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone“A US-based nonprofit is planning to use AI surveillance to check for ‘hateful’ speech about Israel inside classrooms in the genocide-ravaged Gaza Strip. The Associated Press reports: ‘A U.S. charity in Gaza is worried that teachers at its schools might stray from a curriculum it says promotes peace and tolerance, so it plans to record classroom conversations and use artificial intelligence to flag speech deemed ‘hateful’ or ‘inciting.’ … So inside the ruins of Gaza an American charity funded by Israelis is going to be teaching schoolchildren not to hold negative beliefs toward the US-backed ethnostate which just destroyed their neighborhoods, killed their families, and laid siege to their entire population, and will be enforcing these standards using AI tech surveillance which will be shared with God knows whom.” (10/10/26)
- Don’t Forget Hasan’s Motive
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger“Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has announced that the U.S. military’s planned execution by firing squad of Nidal Malik Hasan, the U.S. Army psychiatrist, who murdered 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009, will be live-streamed. Of one thing we can be fairly certain: Leading up to Hasan’s execution, U.S. officials will either (1) do everything they can to avoid mentioning what motivated Hasan to commit those murders or (2) lie about it by claiming that he just hates America for its ‘freedom and values.'” (10/09/26)
- The US Military Needs To Reorganize
Source: Persuasion
by Phillips P OBrien“If a crisis can also be seen as an opportunity, the United States Department of Defense is staring at the greatest opportunity of its existence. In the last eight months of warfare with Iran, the U.S. military has produced arguably the worst performance in American history. It had many months, if not years, to prepare for an air campaign against Iran. It was facing an enemy with an already devastated air force, which had been bombed heavily by Israel and once by the United States the year before. The United States had the benefit of an advanced mixed force of land-based and sea-based air power, missiles which the Iranians could not intercept, and excellent intelligence on Iranian activity. Furthermore, the U.S. military also had access to supposedly world-leading, cutting-edge artificial intelligence capabilities …. And the U.S. military failed miserably.” (10/09/26)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/is-it-time-to-end-the-pentagon
- The fates of Jane Doe and Nolan Wells leave us longing for the Golden Rule
Source: Los Angeles Times
by LZ Granderson“Laws, no matter how well intended, are only as strong as people’s beliefs in them. And there is no higher law in life than the one that says we are to treat each other as we wish to be treated.” (10/09/26)
- Welfare Is Immoral in Any Country
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Laurence M Vance“The plain fact is that it is immoral to take money by coercion from one party and give it to another party. Just because the government does it does not make it any less immoral. Welfare is immoral in any country.” (10/09/26)
https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/welfare-is-immoral-in-any-country/
- A lovely example of why politics is bad at economics
Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Tim Worstall“Let us imagine, just for a moment, that this climate change thing is really big and important. So much so that we’re going to subsidise people moving from internal combustion engines over to electric vehicles. No, no, don’t worry about whether all that is true or not, necessary or a good idea. That’s just the set up. We’ve got to shift that transport sector and we’re going to do it via subsidy. ‘Andy Burnham is preparing to raise tariffs on Chinese electric cars as part of a closer relationship with the EU.’ … The answer to climate change is that we both subsidise electric vehicles and also that we tax electric vehicles at a rate of 45%. That the political process would even consider this – this before how we all know there will be those who think it a good idea – shows, precisely, why politics and good economics just do not mix.” (10/09/26)
https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/a-lovely-example-of-why-politics-is-bad-at-economics
- The Collective Is the Enemy of Community
Source: American Greatness
by Thaddeus G McCotter“Whether reflecting on the impersonal essence of ‘virtual reality’ and the incessant stream of demands and anxieties it imposes upon our diurnal, increasingly alienated existence, or listening to the concerns of one’s fellow citizens, one hears a persistent leitmotif: the longing for true community, especially among the youth. One aspect of this longing has been well bruited: people’s gnawing sense that the myth of ‘virtual community’ is an alienating illusion that increasingly leaves them numb and pining for personal engagements—the flesh-and-blood amities, intimacies, and sundry other encounters of true community. Exacerbating this sense of loss, especially among the young, people are very concerned about ‘affordability’ (such as the inability to purchase a new home, rent an apartment, find an entry-level job, or keep the one they already have) due to the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and inflation.” (10/10/26)
https://amgreatness.com/2026/10/10/the-collective-is-the-enemy-of-community/
- “Socialism to Me”: Definition by Wishful Thinking
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Joshua Mawhorter“The masterful socialist strategy is to present only the benefits of their policies with no (or almost no) costs, and then assert that the consequences of state intervention are actually the costs of free-market capitalism. Ironically, however, the socialists need the genuine production and exchange from some degree of market capitalism in order to give anything to anyone. What does not exist or is not possessed cannot be given.” (10/09/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/socialism-me-definition-wishful-thinking
- The Floundering Anglo-American Right
Source: The Weekly Dish
by Andrew Sullivan“For the ancients, thymos always had to cede to reason to be exercised properly, and always, as for every virtue, in moderation. The consequences of unrestrained thymos could be disastrous, as Socrates taught, and Alcibiades, who rashly got Athens into a war it could not win, proved. So no, the West is not defined by ambition, nor by ‘the unapologetic pursuit of national power.’ For most of the last two thousand years, after all, ‘national power’ did not exist. Christendom did. The West is defined by reason allied with Christianity, which eventually gave us the liberal order. Rubio wants to replace that with unconstrained passion allied with the will to power. God help us. But that just reveals how virulently anti-Christian the American right has now become.” (10/09/26)
https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/the-floundering-anglo-american-right
- How Italy Lost the 21st Century
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Marta Roels“At the turn of the century, Italy was a G7 industrial power, admired for its fashion, automobiles, machinery, food, and design. Since then, a rigid labor market, complex taxation, slow courts, small family firms, heavy public debt, demographic decline, and the constraints of the euro have combined to undermine growth. Italy has not dramatically collapsed; it has lost time. Between 2000 and 2022, Italian labor productivity fell by roughly 4%, while the EU average rose around 20%.” (10/09/26)
- Fukuyama’s Glasses
Source: Liberal Currents
by Katherine Alejandra Cross“Like the man himself, Francis Fukuyama’s new memoir ‘In the Realm of the Last Man’ combines startling insight and baffling contradiction.” (10/09/26)
- A Former Right-Winger’s Guide on How to Defeat Her Old Side
Source: The UnPopulist
by Paul Crider“I think of Sarah Longwell as a kind of political sin-eater. The founder and publisher of The Bulwark sprinkles quotes like the above throughout her new book, a New York Times bestseller, How to Eat an Elephant: One Voter at a Time. They are a small sampling of her regular focus groups of American voters. She listens to the most infuriating inanities from the world’s most irresponsible voters because the rest of us would be driven to madness from the Lovecraftian horror that is American public opinion. Longwell uses her vast trove of qualitative voter data and her long experience in Republican communications to end the electoral dominance of her former side and enact reforms long and deep enough to decisively resolve the authoritarian crisis.” (10/09/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/a-former-right-wingers-guide-on-how
- As Lists of Companies Complicit in Its Crimes Grow, Will Israel Finally Pay a Price?
Source: Common Dreams
by Ramzy Baroud“Let’s start with the good news. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has added 61 companies to its database of businesses involved in activities linked to illegal Israeli settlements, expanding the list from 158 to 214 companies. Why is this good news? Because it further illustrates a degree of seriousness within the international community to move its position on Israel from the realm of language to that of action. Yet more good news: Five previously listed companies were removed after the office determined that their involvement in the relevant activities had ended. For the Israeli mindset to change, the consequences of occupation, annexation, and genocide must become unmistakable. This matters because it suggests that the mechanism can work: Sustained scrutiny can influence corporate behavior, and supporting Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine can carry a price.” (10/10/26)
- Deep State of the World
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Meryl Nass“Councils of Government (COGs) and Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) are a form of non-democratic authority that are taking over functions from duly elected state and local governments, funded by grants from state and federal governments. This project has been expanding in power and funding since the 1960s. It involves creating new organizations with appointed members for which there is no direct citizen oversight.” (10/09/26)
- Why Didn’t 2008 Bank Bailouts Produce COVID-Level Inflation?
Source: The Daily Economy
by Paul Mueller“Washington responded to two crises with extraordinary monetary and fiscal interventions. Why did COVID-era stimulus produce soaring inflation when the response to the 2008 financial crisis did not?” (10/09/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/why-didnt-bank-bailouts-produce-covid-level-inflation/
- Hasta la Vista, Baby
Source: Independent Institute
by Daniel Sánchez-Piñol“This November, voters will decide on the California Billionaire Tax Act (Prop 40), which would retroactively impose a 5 percent tax on the wealth of residents worth more than $1 billion. Its supporters say it could raise $100 billion, even though several billionaires have already left the state or plan to. Beginning in 2020 and intensifying in 2021, a tidal wave of entrepreneurs and businesses left California, including tech billionaires Elon Musk and Larry Ellison. It’s not hard to see why: the state’s high taxes, heavy regulations, and increasingly contentious political climate have made it clear that success is not welcome.” (10/09/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/10/09/hasta-la-vista-baby/
- How Vance and Thiel Get the Antichrist Backwards
Source: The Bulwark
by Matthew D Taylor“One is doing a bit of cynical pandering, the other is condemning anyone opposed to the tech future—and neither is willing to look in the mirror.” (10/09/26)
- The Spy Chief Who Was Caught by Accident
Source: Antiwar.com
by Thomas S Karat“In February 2003, the intelligence that August Hanning’s service had handed to Washington turned up in Colin Powell’s presentation to the United Nations Security Council, in the case for invading Iraq. On the morning of 6 October 2026, masked officers walked Hanning, now eighty, out of his house near Münster in handcuffs, on suspicion of attempted treason and espionage. The secrets that undid him had been sitting on a hard drive in that house, and some of them had been shared with Berlin by its allies. The United States is the first of those allies.” (10/09/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/thomas_karat/2026/10/08/the-spy-chief-who-was-caught-by-accident
- “Donroe Doctrine” and conservative victories squeeze cartels in Latin America
Source: Fox News
by Chuck DeVore“The cartels are losing political cover, and they know it. The Trump administration has treated the Western Hemisphere as a security problem rather than allow diplomatic courtesy to block needed action. Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro is in U.S. custody. Colombia elected Abelardo de la Espriella, who ran opposed to negotiations with armed groups and won. Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay and others have aligned with Washington’s enforcement policies. The Shield of the Americas coalition now coordinates intelligence and operations against cartel networks, but with a handful of exceptions: Mexico, Brazil, Cuba and Nicaragua. That is the Donroe Doctrine in practice: American predominance in the hemisphere, applied to migration, Chinese footholds and the drug trade. Critically, this is a major shift in the operating environments for the Sinaloa Cartel, CJNG (Jalisco New Generation Cartel) and the Colombian and Venezuelan networks that fed them.” (10/10/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/donroe-doctrine-conservative-victories-squeeze-cartels-latin-america
- When will Mamdani care about victims of crimes the same way he does about illegal [sic] migrants?
Source: New York Post
by Kirsten Fleming“An alleged gangbanger in this country illegally [sic] was shot and wounded by ICE [gangbangers] in The Bronx on Thursday. And by the way New York politicians immediately reacted (with press conferences and outraged tweets the length of ‘War and Peace’) one would think ICE had made swiss cheese of a sweet grandma as she handed out Werther’s Originals to the neighborhood children. All the usual suspects reflexively grabbed a microphone and called to ‘abolish ICE’ in the name of Oscar Belgal, who reportedly used his car to smash through a vehicle barricade before accelerating toward ICE [gangbangers]. Belgal’s 5-year-old son was in the car and was unharmed, no thanks to his pathetic excuse of a father. Still, an outraged Mayor Mamdani stood alongside AG Tish James and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams declaring war on ICE.” (10/09/26)
- US leaves Iraq: ‘Shock and awe’ curdles into ‘Aw, shucks’
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Mark Thompson“The U.S. ends its military campaign in Baghdad after 23 years of fighting. The campaign cost 4,418 US troops their lives and will end up costing nearly $3 trillion through 2050.” (10/09/’26)
- A Brief Guide to Trump’s Vote Buying Schemes
Source: CounterPunch
by Peter Hart“As the midterm elections approach, it’s safe to say that things don’t look great for Donald Trump’s Republican Congressional majority. He has responded by the usual threats and bluster, but also by promising to send voters money. Now, it should be said that politicians make promises all the time – to voters in general or to more specific constituents. This is part of the process. But sending out quick payments to voters right before an election, and promising a big payday if voters deliver his party a victory, are highly unusual moves.” (10/09/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/10/09/a-brief-guide-to-trumps-vote-buying-schemes/
- Evangelizing a Post-Literate Society
Source: Law & Liberty
by Nadya Williams[W]hy exactly is it so bad that screens have destroyed so many people’s ability to focus and read since 1980, and even more dramatically since 2007? What do we lose if people no longer read like it’s the 1770s? Quite a bit, [James] Marriott contends. One significant concern for him is the damage to politics that he blames on the decline of reading: ‘Perhaps the most worrying victim of the Great Simplification is our public discourse. It seems that our distracted and trivial culture increasingly struggles to sustain a rational debate on almost any issue.’ In other words, reading trains our brains to engage with ideas in earnest and to use our attention spans to listen to elaborate arguments and process them afterwards. But those who do not have these skills are unable to engage with serious arguments in the public sphere.” (10/09/26)
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/evangelizing-a-post-literate-society/
- America Mobilizing to Protect Midterms
Source: The American Prospect
by Whitney Curry Wimbish“Thousands of people are preparing to protect the midterm elections and mobilize immediately if President Trump interferes with the results. They are drawing lessons from the American civil rights era and from fights against authoritarianism worldwide, attending political education classes, and reassessing exactly how much they will risk, personally, to stand between a government takeover and the will of the voters. ‘There’s a deeper, broader, bolder set of efforts afoot to prepare people for much more existential scenarios that could come our way that would call into question the pillars of our democracy itself for what it’s for and who it’s for,’ said Jackson Potter, vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union. ‘People are zeroing in.’ He’s organizing with May Day Strong, which this month hosted more than 750 ‘solidarity school’ training sessions nationwide.” (10/09/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/10/09/america-mobilizing-to-protect-midterms-trump-election/
- Hormuz and the Looming Economic Catastrophe
Source: The American Conservative
by Philip Pilkington“Treasury bonds are not just any old asset. For one, they are the debt of the U.S. government. If they become uninvestable, the capacity for Washington to live beyond its means through debt issuance is open to question. Treasuries are also the benchmark asset for the entire global dollar system that has allowed the U.S. to run enormous deficits for decades. If this asset starts ‘trading like a meme stock’ and generating awful returns, foreigners will opt for something else. … The Trump administration has become fixated on the Strait of Hormuz, seeing it as a decisive battlefield on which the U.S. can win the war. But the Strait is merely a means to an end. For Iran, that end is to slowly demolish the American economy and financial system until the pressure becomes too much and the U.S. backs off.” (10/09/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/hormuz-and-the-looming-economic-catastrophe/
- Economic Blockades: Protectionism As Punishment
Source: The Daily Economy
by Caleb S Fuller & Scott Burns“Trump’s ‘Economic D-Day’ against Iran bears an uncanny resemblance to his ‘Liberation Day’ strategy for America. Both rely on the same basic mechanism: restricting trade. Yet Trump assures us they will produce opposite results. For Americans, trade restrictions will bring economic revival; for Iran, they will bring economic ruin. You don’t need a PhD in economics — or any degree at all — to spot the contradiction. The renowned American economist Henry George — a middle school dropout who taught himself economics — exposed the paradox of protectionism in 1886: ‘What protection teaches us is to do to ourselves in time of peace what enemies seek to do to us in time of war.'” (10/08/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/economic-blockades-protectionism-as-punishment/
- Bring US Forces Home — From Around the World
Source: The American Conservative
by Doug Bandow“No doubt, the military must be vigilant in protecting personnel and equipment from threats, especially those assessed as significant and imminent. Yet who imagined that the Pentagon would believe itself unable to protect aircraft based in the UK from Iran? What if America was battling Russia—would the administration also withdraw its bombers from the UK? Withdraw all planes from all Europe? Empty its bases in Asia and the Middle East as well? … The president, as well as other leading policymakers in Washington, should treat the threat to America’s overextended military as an opportunity. Time is long past for retrenchment, winding down a global presence that no longer serves serious, let alone vital, American interests.” (10/08/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/bring-u-s-forces-home-from-around-the-world/
- Trump’s Steel Policy Is Working. That’s the Problem
Source: Bloomberg
by Scott Lincicome“With great fanfare, President Donald Trump announced last week that ‘the largest steel plant ever built in the United States’ would be coming to Lee County, Iowa, adding that Mesabi Metallics’[s] $15 billion investment in a pivotal midterm swing state proved his ‘powerful 50% tariffs’ were working. He’s right: The announcement is a tangible result of American steel policy — but, contrary to what the president said, that’s not a good thing. Start with the project’s real price tag. Thanks to tariffs and other trade restrictions, US steel prices are among the highest in the world …. Because steel-consuming industries greatly outnumber steelmakers in the US, studies have repeatedly shown that steel tariffs, whether imposed by Trump in 2018 or George W. Bush in 2002, caused a net reduction in US manufacturing output and employment — effects that, in the latter case, persisted for years after the levies were lifted.” (10/08/26)
- Congress can reclaim its spending and war powers by revising two policies
Source: The Hill
by Maya Kornberg“In one of his latest examples of executive overreach, President Trump cancelled $810 million in congressionally authorized spending, yet again undermining Congress’s power of the purse. From funding freezes to illegal wars, Trump has repeatedly tried to seize Congress’s constitutional powers throughout this term. The Government Accountability Office pushed back on the recent cancellation. And there are finally signs that Congress is starting to get fed up. Lawmakers from both parties are reportedly discussing how to adjust future spending bills to make sure this doesn’t happen again. But Congress must go much further in clawing its power back. Lawmakers must learn from congressional history and reassert their authority to check executive abuse, particularly on the power of the purse and war-making.” (10/08/26)
- Israeli Carnage in Lebanon Is Part Of a Pattern
Source: JimBovard.com
by James Bovard“Since March, Israeli attacks in Lebanon have displaced more than a million civilians and killed or wounded more than 17,000 people. Al Jazeera reported last month that ‘Israeli artillery shelling is still causing uncontrollable fires. Lebanese civil defense and firefighters are not being allowed by the Israelis to reach these areas and put out the flames. More than 60 towns in southern Lebanon are still occupied by the Israeli army, where the Israelis are carrying out a systematic campaign of demolitions.’ The war in Iran and the continued carnage in Gaza have squeezed out American media coverage of Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon and Beirut. But Israel is repeating the same strategy and the storyline that it has used to justify attacking Lebanon since the dawn of the Reagan era.” (10/08/26)
https://jimbovard.com/blog/2026/10/08/israeli-carnage-in-lebanon-is-part-of-a-pattern/
- The Good Fight, 09/10/26
Source: Yascha Mounk
“Why America’s Real Wealth Isn’t in Silicon Valley.” (10/09/26)
- Serious Trouble, 10/09/26
Source: Serious Trouble
“Not Paid for By the US Government.” (10/09/26)
https://www.serioustrouble.show/p/not-paid-for-by-the-us-government
- Ron Paul Liberty Report, 10/09/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“‘Golden Age’ Milestone — Gov Budget Deficit Hits $2 Trillion.” (10/09/26)
- The Dispatch Podcast, 10/09/26
Source: The Dispatch
“What Midterm Polling May Be Getting Wrong.” (10/09/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/dispatch-podcast/what-midterm-polling-may-be-getting-wrong/
- Soho Forum Debate: Will Mamdani Make Housing More Affordable?
Source: Reason
“Economist Emily Eisner and former New York State Assemblyman Kenny Burgos debate the resolution, ‘Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s housing policies will make housing more affordable for most New York City residents.'” (10/09/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/10/09/will-mamdani-make-housing-more-affordable/
- Minor Issues, 10/10/26
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
“Violent Populism.” (10/10/26)
- The Moynihan Report, 10/09/26
Source: The Moynihan Report
“The Confidence Man: Alex Gibney Vs. Elon Musk.” (10/09/26)
https://www.themoynihan.report/p/the-confidence-man-alex-gibney-vs
- Reasonably Optimistic, 10/09/26
Source: Washington Post
“The overlooked businesses making Americans rich.” (10/09/26)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/impromptu/the-overlooked-businesses-making-americans-rich/
- Freakonomics Radio, episode 690
Source: Freakonomics
“It’s Show Business, Baby!” (10/09/26)
- The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 10/09/26
Source: The New Republic
“Trump Rage at Fox Backfires as Aides Leak Humiliating Motive Behind It.” (10/09/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/216438/trump-rage-fox-backfires-aides-leak-humiliating-motive-behind
- Fountainhead Forum, episode 499
Source: Fountainhead Forum
“Brad Sandefur on running for Sheriff of Cook County, Illinois.” (10/09/26)
https://rumble.com/v7gll0o-ff-499-brad-sandefur-on-running-for-sheriff-of-cook-county-illinois.html
- Show-Me Institute Podcast, 10/09/26
Source: Show-Me Institute
“A Menu of Housing Reforms with Salim Furth.” (10/09/26)
https://showmeinstitute.org/article/economy/a-menu-of-housing-reforms-with-salim-furth/
- The Anarchist Experience, episode 601
Source: The Anarchist Experience
“Rich and Riley discuss televised public executions, libertarian reputation ratings, and this HEADLINE: North Carolina Woman Doesn’t Have First Amendment Right to Publish Video of Cop Shooting Her Dogs, Court Rules.” (10/09/26)
https://theanarchistexperience.wordpress.com/2026/10/09/the-anarchist-experience-601/
- The Political Orphanage, 10/08/26
Source: The Political Orphanage
“Europe is Freeloading on American Healthcare.” (10/08/26)
https://politicalorphanage.libsyn.com/europe-is-freeloading-on-american-healthcare
- Anarcho Agenda, episode 151
Source: Anarcho Agenda
“Dallin Oaks calls it the common good, I call it a limit on you.” (10/08/26)
- Underthrow Podcast, 10/08/26
- Nonzero, 10/08/26
Source: bloggingheads.tv
“Inside Elon’s Mind | Robert Wright & Alex Gibney.” (10/08/26)
- Declare Your Independence with Ernest Hancock, 10/08/26
Source: Freedom’s Phoenix
“Patrick Wood (Editor-In-Chief of Technocracy.News; Author of Technocracy Rising; Trilaterals over Washington) on his new book, Crucible of Tokens: Tokenization, Stablecoins, and the New Architecture of Global Banking.” (10/08/26)
- Politics Politics Politics, 10/08/26
Source: Politics Politics Politics
“Are These Senate Races Widening or Tightening? The Most Expensive Midterms Ever (with Dave Levinthal).” (10/08/26)
https://www.politicspoliticspolitics.com/p/are-these-senate-races-widening-or
- Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 10/08/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Trump Says He Won’t Bomb Iran Before Midterms, Ansar Allah Pounds Saudi Airports, and More.” (10/08/26)